Rents of almost €1,900 a month will be charged for some of the first cost-rental apartments at O’Devaney Gardens in Dublin city, making them the most expensive homes yet provided under the State-subsidised scheme.
Figures show rents of €1,490 for a one-bedroom apartment, €1,695 for a two-bed and €1,895 for a three-bed have been agreed for the first 75 cost-rental apartments in the vast complex of more than 1,000 homes, which are being constructed in blocks of up to 14 storeys.
The setting of rents follows several years of negotiations between Dublin City Council and developer Bartra on the purchase of a portion of the homes for the cost-rental scheme, which offers State-subsidised rents to low- and middle-income workers.
City councillors five years ago voted in favour of a contentious deal with Bartra for the sale of the 14-acre site of the former 1950s flats complex off the North Circular Road.
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Under the deal, 30 per cent of the homes were to be reserved for social housing and 20 per cent for affordable purchase; the remaining 50 per cent were available to Bartra to sell privately.
However, to secure the agreement of councillors, Bartra offered a portion of these private apartments to the council or a nominated housing body for a cost-rental scheme. A total of 264 homes are to be used for cost rental and Tuath Housing has been selected by the council to manage the first 75 of these, which are due to be available in 2026.
Under the cost-rental scheme, rents are based on the cost of building, managing and maintaining the properties. A spokeswoman for Tuath said the rents agreed for the first 75 apartments were “more than 30 per cent below the current market rates for the area”.
However, Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said while the rents were lower than those charged for new tenancies, they were higher than existing tenancies in the surrounding area. “These are rents which are not affordable for the overwhelming majority of people who would be eligible for cost-rental housing.”
The cost-rental system is designed for workers who earn too much to qualify for social housing but cannot afford private market rents. However, under the terms of the scheme, applicants cannot spend more than one-third of their income on rent, which would exclude many potential applicants for O’Devaney Gardens, Mr Ó Broin said.
“This exposes the folly of gifting this land to Bartra. This site should only ever have been developed by Dublin City Council for public housing. Leaving aside the frightening figure of €1,895, no one looking at these figures could say almost €1,500 for a one-bed is affordable.”
Agreement is also understood to have been reached for the cost-rental homes at Oscar Traynor Woods in Coolock, where 340 homes will be available for cost-rental tenants. Prices are lower for this Glenveagh-built development, with one-beds expected to cost €1,183, two-beds €1,577, and three-beds €1,742. The scheme will be managed by Clúid Housing.
The first 16 affordable purchase homes at Oscar Traynor Woods, which are also State subsidised, were sold in recent months with prices ranging from €254,358 to €475,000, with the higher-end prices drawing considerable criticism over the summer months.
While the prices for the O’Devaney Gardens affordable purchase scheme have yet to be set, the higher rental prices indicate they are likely to exceed those at Oscar Traynor Woods.
Bartra said it had “no role in the process” of setting cost-rental levels. A Glenveagh spokesman said the company’s revenues from Oscar Traynor Woods were fixed and “there is no mechanism for Glenveagh to amend or increase its pricing”.
The council said cost-rental prices would be a “minimum of 25 per cent below comparable market rents in the area”.
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